Insani-tee

Here's number two in my series of colorful tee shirts to get me through the winter:

Whoa!!   How many of you sewing enthusiasts saw this in the Girl Charlee sale and said, "Nah.  Ain't gonna happen.  No way, no how?"  OR:  did any of you buy it too?  I quite like it.  It makes me feel like a party girl, which is pretty much the opposite of who I really am.

Of course, it's my beloved Dolman-Sleeve Top pattern from Cation Designs.  I really can't get enough of this pattern.  This time I lengthened the sleeves by extending them out 5" beyond the line of the pattern, which made for a very close-fitting, 3/4 length sleeve.  Here's a view of the back, showing both the awesomeness of the fabric and the dolman-y goodness:

I think Niecey-poo was a little jealous of this fabric!

The fabric is a cotton/rayon blend, very soft and drapey, but one of those fabrics that takes forever to arrange into a nice fold before cutting.  I spent a good 45 minutes just on that.  While I was doing so, I discovered a hole in the middle; luckily it was near the edge.   I inspected the fabric and didn't see any more holes, so I thought I was safe.  Imagine my horror when I was giving the top its final press, and discovered another hole on the back near the side seam!  I was able to fuse some knit interfacing to the inside to stabilize it, but I think this shirt will have to be for party wear only because it's so delicate.

So:  anybody want to invite me to a party?

The Pencil, fixed.

I did let out the Pencil Skirt.  I have to say, although it feels much more comfortable to wear now, I think it lacks its prior VaVaVoom.  Here's a "before and after" collage:

On right:  with yet another faux-fur collared sweater!

I ended up letting out the side seams by 1/2 inch each (1/4 inch front and back) - all the way to the serged edge.  I did this even though  I knew I'd have to take the right hip in again - I just wanted to see how much leeway I had.  I did end up taking in the right hip again by about 3/8", so almost back to where it had started.

As I was analyzing the fit, I discovered something interesting:  although the two front darts were the same length, the right one appeared to be significantly shorter, because my pelvis is quite tilted, with the right side being higher.  I ended up lengthening that dart by a half inch to make it appear to be the same length as the one on the left.

I think I can call this skirt wearable now, even though the fit isn't perfect yet.  I'm still getting poufing at the bottom of the right hip dart, and I've still got some diagonal drag lines on the bum.  I need to look this up again to find out the fix for it!  But I think I've done all I can do to this skirt without compromising the fabric.  And my sanity.

Oops!  Off center!  Also, not my best zipper installation.

I'm not done exploring this type of skirt on me; my plan is to do the next one using the pattern from Gertie's book, since lots of people have been raving about it.   In the meantime, I've been making things I'll actually wear in my daily life.  Fancy that!

Oh!  And I wore my one and only pair of vintage clip-on earrings with this outfit!  I've had them a gazillion years (I bought them when I was in college!) and never had anything to wear them with.  Because you can't see them in the pictures above, here's a close up:

Aren't they pretty?

Double Dip

two two two FOs in one post!  That's what happens when you get lazy about taking pictures:  the FOs start to pile up!  

I finished this skirt almost two weeks ago, but I decided that I wanted to wait to post it until I'd finished my mohair cardi, so I could make an outfit out of it.  This is a skirt that's been on my list for a while:  the inverted pleat skirt from Burda's September 2012 issue (also available as a download).  This type of skirt is just my style.  I used some of the leftover fabric from the pencil skirt for my first go with the pattern:

Interesting story:  for my pencil skirt, I used a size 38 waist and 40 hip, and as you know, it came out too small.  For this skirt, I used a size 38 waist and 40 hip, and it came out too big!  D'oh! 

Also, I got duped by the styling.  If you clicked the pattern link above, you saw that the lovely red skirt on the model sits at her natural waist.  The pattern states that this skirt sits 1" below the navel.  Did I believe it?  No, of course not.  I decided it was going to look like the one on the model, despite all evidence to the contrary.  I wonder if I'll ever learn.

So technically, it really isn't too big.  It just sits on the hip (like it was designed to) rather than at the waist (like I wanted it to).  No biggie; I can fix that next time.

I wore it last week with a silk blouse and my Exeter cardigan to go for coffee with Alicia.  What with the silk of the blouse and the lining of the skirt, I felt like a slippery mess!  Too bad, because I like this blouse against this turquoise.  Maybe I'll try it with the pencil skirt.  You can't see it well here, but the blouse has some of this same turquoise in the print.

Of course, it ended up being 73 degrees that day!

And here it is with the mohair cardi.  I really love this turquoise with forest green:

More leopard shoes.

As you can see, the cardi is quite boxy, but I'm OK with that.  The thing I'm not so crazy about is how the ribbing bunches up and gets poofy.  I may consider running some elastic along the inside.  I do like how the shoulder seam sits just at my natural shoulder edge, although I'm not really sure why.  It looks a little more vintage-y?

I spent the better part of a day finishing this up.  There was a lot of sewing.  The button bands are knit separately and then sewn to the fronts.  No buttonholes are worked; rather, the right button band is sewn leaving spaces between it and the front edge for the button to go through.  This is probably the best way to approach an opening for a button this big, but it's quite tedious to do.

I was considering sewing some ribbon on the insides to stabilize the button band, and I may still do that.  But really, as a cardigan, I think it looses its appeal somewhat.  It looks much better buttoned up, because the buttons are showcased that way.

Here's a pic of the back, just because I took it.  You can clearly see here that there's no shaping whatsoever.

Heh.  It really shows off my trapezius muscles.

And finally, here's me trying to look the model in the magazine, a la 1963.  I didn't go so far as to cut my hair, but I did try the pose, and I did put on some similar jewelry.

Things never end well when I try to look like a model.

Holiday Nails

I hadn't really planned on posting nails today, especially since I have a whopping four FOs I haven't photographed or posted yet, and three new projects going!  But I did this combo last night, and really love it:

Midnight Kiss is my favorite gold polish - I just love the sparkly finish, and the light silvery-gold shade is so perfect.  With the little black polka dots added on top, it reminds me of champagne bubbles rising to the top of the glass!

Fellow polish-lovers, do you also gravitate toward metallic polishes at this time of year?  It seems to be all I'm wearing lately!

A Quick Note

I wanted to let you all know that I've turned the word verification back on for comments.   It was fine without it for quite a while, but for the last few months I've been getting more and more spam to wade through.  I hope it won't stop you from leaving me a note - I love to hear from you all!

The Buttons

Since there was a fair bit of interest in the crocheted buttons yesterday, I'm posting how I did them today.   Below are the instructions as they were written in the pattern*.  I made some modifications though, which I'll explain at the end.

The pattern calls for "button molds;"  I have no idea what those are, and a quick google search didn't help.  I just put a plain old button inside  and it worked fine.   For this sweater, the pattern recommends a size B crochet hook (2.25mm), which produces a nice, firm fabric.  The buttons I used were 7/8" diameter.

For each button:
Chain 3, join with slip stitch to form a ring.
Round 1:  6 sc in ring
Round 2:  2 sc in each sc (12 sc)
Round 3:  *1 sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc; repeat from * around (18 sc)
Round 4 and 5:  1 sc in each sc (18 sc)
Round 6:  insert button mold; *sc in next sc,  skip 1 sc; repeat from * around until mold is completely covered.
Fasten off.

sc = single crochet in US, or double crochet in British English

the back

Once I'd made my first button, I found that there was too much empty space inside, so I eliminated Round 5.  In other words, I only worked one round of single crochet after the increase rounds.

I also found it easier to work Round 6 all the way around once, and then insert my button into the cup-shaped space created.  This helped keep the button from slipping out as I finished closing it up.  To keep the back as flat as possible, I worked the last few stitches as slip stitches rather than as single crochets, and then left a tail long enough to use for sewing the button to the sweater.

There you have it.  Like I said, easy peasy!


*Design number 27, Vogue Knitting Magazine Fall/Winter 1963

Lately

I guess it's probably obvious that I haven't felt a lot like writing lately, so I've kind of taken a step back.  But I have been working on projects, to varying degrees of success.

My main project these days is not crafty:  I've been participating in the Concept2 Holiday Challenge, so I've been rowing much more than normal.  Sometimes I feel like it's kind of taken over my life!  But in a good way.  In addition to raising money for charity with every kilometer I row, I'm also hoping to get rowing firmly back into my everyday routine with this challenge, as I'd fallen off the wagon over the summer with all the  goings-on around here.  As of yesterday, I've rowed 14 days straight, averaging 6 to 8K per day.  I made myself a little button on the right, so if you are interested, go check out the C2 site!  This year I'm supporting the NRDC.

In knitting news, I frogged two projects that I wasn't in love with:  a pair of mitts, and the Beatnik sweater I'd started about a month ago.  But I have almost completed a little cardigan from one of my vintage magazines.

Here's what mine looks like:

I'm using Kidsilk Aura in Forest.  I bought this yarn last year in a super sale, and then couldn't find a pattern I thought went well with this color.  Until I bought this issue of Vogue Knitting Fall/Winter 1963 a few weeks ago.

This is just a simple, jewel-neck cardigan with elbow length sleeves, but the crocheted buttons are what make it, in my opinion.

I'm almost finished with this one.  All I have to do is the buttonhole band, the neck band and then sew the pieces together.  I'm also thinking I'll do some sort of facing inside the button band, as the buttons are a little heavy for this filmy fabric.

In the meanwhile, I've started a new Kim Hargreaves sweater . . .